Court Approves Desegregation Plan for Cleveland, Mississippi, Schools

Cleveland School District to Open Consolidated Middle and High Schools by August 2017

U.S. District Court Judge
Debra M. Brown of the Northern District of Mississippi today approved a
joint settlement agreement filed on Feb. 8 by the Justice Department,
private plaintiffs, and the Cleveland School District. The agreement
will lead to the effective desegregation of Cleveland’s middle and high
schools by the start of the next school year.

Under the
terms approved today, the school district agrees to comply with a May
13, 2016 court ruling mandating consolidation of Cleveland middle and
high schools to remedy decades-long segregation in the school district.
The consolidated high school, to be named Cleveland Central High School,
will open by August at the current Margaret Green/Cleveland High
campus. Also by August, the district will open the consolidated middle
school (seventh and eighth grades), Cleveland Central Middle School, at
the current East Side High facility. Under the agreement, sixth grade
students will attend district elementary schools rather than the
consolidated middle school.

As part of the agreement, the
district and plaintiffs have withdrawn all alternative desegregation
proposals from consideration by the Court. The district has also
withdrawn its pending appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
Fifth Circuit.

“The Department is pleased to
have reached agreement with the Cleveland School District and private
plaintiffs to settle this decades-long litigation,” said Acting
Assistant Attorney General Tom Wheeler of the Justice Department’s Civil
Rights Division. “The plan approved today allows the community to move forward together. It reflects the parties’ shared commitment to high quality equal educational opportunities for all Cleveland students.”

Promoting school
desegregation and enforcing Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is a
top priority of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
Additional information about the Civil Rights Division is available on
its website at www.justice.gov/crt.